September 23, 2016

Captain Sam's

It was a bit slower today at Captain Sam’s with 53 new birds and 16 recaptures, comprised of 22 species.  The slowed activity today gave us the opportunity to do some net repair and maintenance.  The mist nets we use are made of a fine nylon mesh that stretch about 12 meters and stand about 2.5 meters tall.  The mist nets at KIBS have a life span of about 2-3 fall banding seasons.   After about 2-3 seasons of being exposed to the elements, the mesh of the net can become brittle and can break when minimal force is applied.  Every season, we usually have to replace a net or two that had the misfortune of a deer encounter.  Small holes and tears in the net are most commonly caused by banders.  The net can get hung up on zippers and buttons and if it goes unnoticed, it can put a rip in the net.  Each net cost about a hundred dollars to replace, so we will always try to repair a net before we replace it. 

-Mattie        

Little Bear

It was a bit busier at Little Bear with 83 new birds and 19 recaptures of 22 different species.  Common Yellowthroats and Red-eyed Vireos kept us busy for most of the morning.  We also banded several “Traill’s” Flycatcher, one of which we were able to key out as an Alder Flycatcher.  For each of the “Traill’s” Flycatchers we catch, we take a series of measurements to see if we can determine if it’s a Willow or Alder Flycatcher.  More often than not, it seems these measurements do not lead to a specific species and we are left with “Traill’s” Flycatcher.  Though it is always rewarding when the measurements do pan out and the species is identified.      

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Common Ground-Dove	2	-	-	-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1	-	-	-
Acadian Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Alder Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	-	3	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	5	5	1
Red-eyed Vireo	8	-	14	-
Carolina Chickadee		1	1	-
Tufted Titmouse	-	-	-	1
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	-	-	1	-
Veery	1	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	3	-	2	4
Brown Thrasher	1	-	1	-
Northern Mockingbird	-	-	1	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	-	3
Common Yellowthroat	20	2	29	3
American Redstart	3	1	3	-
Yellow Warbler	2	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	1	-	6	-
Prairie Warbler	3	1	6	1
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	1	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	1	2
Painted Bunting	2	1	2	3
Baltimore Oriole	-	-	2	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	53	83	136
# of Recaptures	16	19	35
# of Species	22	22	28
Effort (net-hours)	149.5	120	269.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	46.2	85.0	63.5
# of Nets	26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Blaine Carnes (LB)
Mattie VandenBoom (CS)
Alison Nevins (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Michael Rodgers (CS)
Ryan Donnelly (LB)